Mike Ashley - 1: Landlords - 0

From the BBC:

House of Fraser's flagship Oxford Street store will now stay open after the chain's new owner agreed revised terms with its landlord. The store had been due to close under a restructuring plan that House of Fraser announced in June...

The store was one of the 31 earmarked for closure under the CVA restructuring deal that was first struck before Mr Ashley stepped in with his £90m rescue bid...

Property giant CBRE, which is advising Sports Direct, said negotiations over the Oxford Street outlet had been conducted at "great speed.. This deal only happened because all parties realised it was better to keep the store open and fully operational. It was a real case of landlord and tenant genuinely working together and at great speed. Everyone was sensible about the terms of the transaction."

It's about making a credible threat. The landlords blinked first. Well done, Mr Ashley.

Stockbroker LOLZ

From City AM:

Sports Direct has split from three of its brokers, announcing today that Liberum Capital would be its sole broker from hereon.

The controversial retailer's former collection of brokers was made up of City heavyweights Goldman Sachs, Citi and Haitong.

Haitong and Citi are both neutral on the company's shares, while, last May, Goldman Sachs stopped recommending investors snap up shares and then later slashed its full-year profit forecasts.

By contrast, Liberum is one of the few brokers with a “buy” recommendation for the retailer.

A Sternly Worded Letter

From the Guardian

The Sports Direct founder, Mike Ashley, has been warned he could be found in contempt of parliament after failing to give MPs a date to answer questions about his company’s treatment of workers.

The move represents the latest setback to the tycoon and owner of Premier League strugglers Newcastle United. Ashley has seen almost £1bn wiped from his personal fortune after a downturn in trading at the store chain and a Guardian investigation which revealed that thousands of the retailer’s temporary warehouse workers were receiving effective hourly rates of pay below the minimum wage.

In a strongly worded letter to the billionaire, Iain Wright MP, the chairman of the business, innovation and skills (BIS) committee, said: “A number of alternative dates have been offered to you by the committee clerk, but as yet you have not accepted any of them, nor agreed in principle to attend. As you will be aware, select committees do not normally need to have recourse to our formal powers to summon witnesses in order to secure attendance; refusal to attend without good reason may be considered a contempt of the house.

“Should you fail in your reply to agree to attend on one of the dates offered to you, or a mutually convenient alternative before 1 June, the committee reserves the right to take the matter further, including seeking the support of the House of Commons in respect of any complaint of contempt.”

Wright has given Ashley, who owns 55% of Sports Direct, until 21 March to reply.

And Ashley will probably do nothing. Because he knows exactly what's intended, which is for Iain Wright to make a grandstanding public spectacle, much like Margaret Hodge does, and he sees no benefit from doing so. So, he's politely telling Iain Wright to go fuck himself.